Special to the Daily Journal

ROCKINGHAM — The original dinosaurs were the earth’s dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years. Rickie Smith’s reign has been somewhat shorter, but the man considered drag racing’s last real dinosaur is no less formidable a presence in his realm than T-Rex was in his.

The 61-year-old veteran from King is old school in every sense. In an era of specialization, “Tricky Rickie” remains the essential Renaissance Man of the Mechanical Age.

Forty years into one of the most remarkable careers in motor racing, Smith still is the auto racing equivalent of a one-man band.

While rivals fly in for events from California to Carolina, Smith still drives his own truck-and-trailer, handles all the set-up and maintenance work on his nitrous-boosted Pro Modified and, most importantly, on any given weekend, still provides driving lessons to his mostly younger adversaries.

That’s why, when the PDRA tour returns to Rockingham Dragway Sept. 10 to 12 for Dragstock XII, Smith will be vying for yet another series title. Outside of John Force, no one has won more major drag racing championships than Smith and while Force’s 16 titles all came in the Funny Car class, Smith has reigned over three distinctly different disciplines.

After winning two IHRA Super Modified Championship and five titles in the IHRA’s Mountain Motor Pro Stock class, the former high school football standout and wrestler turned his attention to the NHRA tour where he has won the last two Pro Modified championships.

He can add a PDRA title this week simply by doing what he usually does on the quarter mile track he considers home — and that is simply win.

Smith’s first Rockingham win came in 1977. The most recent was a hole shot victory over reigning PDRA series champion Jason Harris, of Pittsboro, last April.

Although Smith’s mechanical skills, especially in chassis set-up, have kept him at the forefront for more than four decades, it is his driving that is the stuff of legend.

“The first year I went into Pro Stock, we could run pretty fast (but) I was getting kind of wore out,” Smith said. “(The other drivers) knew how to play it. I had run Super Modified and won two championships, but when I went into the pros, it was a little bit meaner crowd up there.

“Either I had to get mean or get out. I figured with my background of high-school football and everything else, I wasn’t about to lay down. So I just got mean with ‘em.”

Despite his reputation, Smith never has taken success for granted. He knows how much work it requires and he admits that he is kind of surprised himself that he still is willing to make the necessary physical and emotional commitment every year.

“The last race you win could be your last one,” he said. “It’s that tough. Things have got to line up for you. It seems like out of the four rounds, you’ve got to get a lucky round. There’s a lot of good-running cars out there that hardly ever win a race.”

Smith’s IDG Camaro obviously is not one of them.

A Carolina racing Hall of Fame member and a legend among Mountain Motor aficionados, Smith has toyed with retirement the last two seasons, ever since he and son Matt became the first father-and-son world champions after prevailing in 2013 in the NHRA Pro Modified and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes, respectively.

In fact, in an emotional moment after clinching his first NHRA title, Smith officially announced his retirement, eliciting a sigh of relief from within the category that quickly turned to anguish once the Carolinian decided he still had some gas in his tank.

Indeed, since he opted to focus on the NHRA series in 2011, Smith has won eight races, two championships, never finished lower than fourth and posted the quickest and fastest quarter mile numbers in history for a nitrous car – 5.778 and 250.13 miles per hour at Atlanta in 2014.

Now, he has applied that laser focus to a PDRA series in which he has gone to the finals in three of the last five events to take over the point lead, a performance that once again his proven that in some arenas, at least, dinosaurs still rule.

Contributed Photo Rickie Smith won his first race at Rockingham Dragway in 1977.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_Rickie-Smith.jpgContributed Photo Rickie Smith won his first race at Rockingham Dragway in 1977.